New Delhi: It’s been two years since Right to Information came into effect and over the last couple of years the Central Information Commission is receiving many appeals against the functioning of many public sector companies.
Out of the nearly 10,000 appeals received, the CIC has disposed over 6,000, that’s a 60 per cent strike rate. However, much more needs to be done as over 4,000 cases are still pending
“The drag is between six to eight months and we would want to reduce it to three months. We are thinking of ways and means by which the situation can be improved,” says Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah.
Of course, it's the self which matters to nearly 30 to 50 per cent of the information seekers, The appellants want to know more about promotions, transfers , service benefits and pension
One of the noticeable trends is over the last year the commission has been giving directions to various public sector giants like ONGC, BHEL, SAIL to be more transparent in their functioning.
But is the Official Secrets' Act a bottleneck?
“I can see that the OSA doesn’t come in our way any way,” says Information Commissioner M M Ansari.
But it's a long road ahead. Sources within the commission admit that RTI still faces a great deal of resistance from Government departments and this is reflected in more than 50 cases various Government departments like DoPT, UPSC, Ministry of Home Affairs have challenged.
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